Overview


Over the course of the school year, we will gather for six Saturday morning workshops to further our work with integrating digital storytelling into your work with students. Unless otherwise indicated, bring all of your materials with you to the workshops.

Workshops are from 8 a.m. to noon unless otherwise indicated. Attendance at at least four of the six workshops is required to receive the second stipend.

Plans for future workshops are always tentative.

Timetable of 2011-12 Workshops

  • [1] September 24, 2011

    • Preparation
      At our first workshop, we will be asking your partnership to provide an update on your progress with implementing the tools and ideas from the summer institute.
      We will ask that you also share a brief overview of your current school and classroom environment. Between now and our first Saturday session, do a bit of videotaping to provide a visual accompaniment. Footage that you gather could include:
      • your classroom environment
      • available technology access points for you and your students around your school
      • shots of fellow teachers with whom you team
      • shots of your technology support people
      • shots of your administrators
      We will provide time and assistance at the workshop to capture your footage and to do the simple editing.
    • Description
      • Welcome Back!
        We will share brief stories about the beginning of the new school year.
      • Activity
        We will spend the majority of the time working on the short video and then share them at the end.
      • Discussion
        We will discuss possibilities for the October, December, January, and February workshops
    • Agenda
  • [2] October 29, 2011

    • Overview During this time we will be diving into 2 alternative pieces of software for creating videos with still images and sound. We will also begin to take a look at the Personal Story assignment as well as reflect on the summer proposals.
    • Agenda
      • Check-in on the Academic Project
        • Is one of the summer proposals still feasible?
        • Is there a timeline?
      • Introduction to the Personal Project Expectations and possibilities
      • Breakout sessions: Hands-on experience with time to produce and present a mini-project
        • Mac Users: GarageBand
        • PC Users: PhotoStory
    • Personal Stories The second part of the workshop will be an introduction to our other project for the year: your own personal digital story. To quote The Center for Digital Storytelling: “Everyone has powerful stories to tell” and “Sharing stories can lead to positive change”. If you have a moment, we encourage you to read CDS’s values and principles from which these quotes are drawn: http://www.storycenter.org/principles.html
    • Materials • PowerPoint PDF:
    • Example videos: (1) Sixty Seconds (2) What Are You? (3) A Light in the Storm

  • [3] December 10, 2011

    • Overview (may be modified)
      During our time together, we will be taking a deeper look at both “digital” and “storytelling”:
      • how we can become fluent with the technology that we have available, and
      • how storytelling can put us in closer touch with our lives.
    • Media and Classroom Fluency
      During the summer, we made reference to the digital storytelling work of Jason Ohler, Professor Emeritus of Educational Technology at the University of Alaska: some of the best we’ve seen. When you’re able to find some time, we encourage you to learn more about it at:
      http://www.jasonohler.com/storytelling/index.cfm
      A great overview of his thinking can be found in his March 2009 article in Educational Leadership:
      http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/mar09/vol66/num06/Orchestrating_the_Media_Collage.aspx
      One of Ohler’s concepts, media fluency, is essentially what we’ve referred to as flow, and is that place where the technology becomes seamlessly interwoven into our work with information. There are two types of such fluency for teachers working with kids and technology:
      • with the tools themselves, and
      • with the environment in which kids use the tools
      It is the latter we will be focusing on at the workshop, as we take a closer look at issues such as (but not limited to):
      • group work
      • scheduling issues
      • equipment access
      • file storage and other technical nuances
      • support
      This (first) part of the workshop will be dialogue-driven, so we ask that you take a few minutes before Saturday to think about what is and what is not working in your implementation of digital storytelling with your students, so that you can share it with your fellow participants. A teacher’s best resource is often other teachers.

  • [4] January 28, 2012

    • Overview
      A presentation about giving presentations and then have open work time
    • Presentation
    • Open Work Time
      Be prepared to work on some aspect of your project and your personal story
    • A Look Ahead to the Final Project Presentations
      • If appropriate, start from the summer proposal presentation
      • Tell the story of the project implementation to an audience that may try it themselves
      • Keep your audience's attention! :)
      • We will follow the presentations with the personal stories
  • [5] March 3, 2012

    • Overview
      We will have final presentation discussions followed by work time.
    • Open Work Time
      Be prepared to work on some aspect of your project and your personal story
    • Preparing for the Presentations
      • Questions? Concerns?
      • Invite guests?
  • [6] May 5, 2012